


smitten with the way your blood sings in my ears

by RENielsen



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Vampire, Falling In Love, Fluff, Love Story, M/M, Nouis, Switching time periods, Vampires, kinda suicidal character, story telling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-18
Updated: 2017-03-18
Packaged: 2018-10-07 05:29:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,384
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10353258
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RENielsen/pseuds/RENielsen
Summary: They’re lying on the roof, watching as the sky slowly becomes lighter. They have to go inside soon if they don’t want to get caught dead when the sun breaks through completely. For once Louis actually isn’t attracted to the idea of staying outside. Maybe because Niall is there with him, and he can’t bear the thought of anything happening to him.“C’mon, let’s get down,” he mutters, as he sits up lightly, elbows holding up most of his weigh.Niall just hums in agreement, but doesn’t move for a moment longer. Louis rolls his eyes, and pushes Niall hard enough that he rolls down and lands on the ground only seconds later.“Ouch!” Niall complains, though, Louis knows he isn’t actually hurt.or a fluffy vampire au no one asked for.





	

Louis isn’t sure exactly how they end up where they are, but it’s the most content he’s felt in ages. He can’t even remember when he last saw Niall, but it could be all between a few couple of days or maybe even centuries. Time doesn’t matter much, when you’ve got more of it than you could possibly imagine.

No matter how long, though, then Louis realises just how much he’s missed the younger man since last they saw each other.

He hadn’t expected the call, didn’t even know Niall had his number, but the smile had crept in without him even noticing when he heard the familiar Irish lit through the speaker.

Niall had told him that he currently had been at the airport, basically on the way to border his plane, when he’d gotten the idea of visiting Louis as soon as he landed in London, if Louis still was in London of course. Quite easily Louis had been able to tell him that yeah, he was still in London. Actually Louis doesn’t think he’s left the city for at least fifty years now. Maybe, actually he’s not sure at all. He’s been here a while, that’s all he knows.

Time tends to blend together when nothing new and exciting happens. Louis was a new vampire when Christianity became an important part of the world, so he has experienced a lot of things, and it’s rare that anything actually makes him excited anymore.

He’s been halfway to slumbering in the old mansion he owns for ages. He hasn’t left the house for just as long.

The good thing about slumbering is that you don’t have to eat as much as you don’t really use any energy at all, which Louis is grateful about. Hunting lost its value a long time ago too. Especially nowadays where it’s basically impossible to even touch a human without getting caught red-handed. All this technology being made every single day is making life hard for him, he’ll admit. Everything seemed easier when all these _things_ weren’t a part of the world.

It’s not like Louis is actually interested in the humans figuring out what he is. It’d just cause… trouble, he isn’t actually interested in having. Especially with the way vampires are being portrayed in the so called literature Louis has lying around somewhere. It’d be chaos to say it mildly, as humans are complicated creatures with little to no understanding of life outside of what their minds think is real.

Not that it matter much, not to Louis at least. The vampires are a minority in the world, and if the humans found out, then Louis doesn’t really doubt that they’d find a way to exterminate every single vampire from the planet. Louis doesn’t care about dying. He’s been alive for millenniums, he’s seen empires rise and fall, he’s seen people who used to be so important vanish and be forgotten. Louis has experienced so much, that even if he was to die in the morning, then he wouldn’t have missed anything. Sometimes he thinks about it to be honest. Thinks about not going to sleep one morning, and instead find a place on the top of the roof, and then finally watching the sunrise again. Let the light wash over his skin till it caught on fire.

He never actually gets there, though, because every time he seems to be ready to take the step and just do it, then sometime like this happens. Something or someone stops him.

If Louis has to be honest with himself, then Niall has been the reason for it too many times for him to still be counting. And, frankly, Louis isn’t even sure _why_ that is.

Niall is still new so to say. Still human when Louis met him the first time. The young teen with crooked teeth, Louis had met while passing through an small farm in a little town in Ireland in the early years of the 1700. He can’t have been more than fifteen when Louis saw him, and even though Louis knows his life as a human wasn’t exactly an easy one, then there wasn’t one time Louis saw him lose the smile.

Some things never change, Louis thinks, watching Niall blow a smoke ring into the dark night sky. He’s got a lazy smile hanging on his lips, eyes shut close as he’s just enjoying the moment.

They’re lying on the roof, watching as the sky slowly becomes lighter. They have to go inside soon if they don’t want to get caught dead when the sun breaks through completely. For once Louis actually isn’t attracted to the idea of staying outside. Maybe because Niall is there with him, and he can’t bear the thought of anything happening to him.

“C’mon, let’s get down,” he mutters, as he sits up lightly, elbows holding up most of his weigh.

Niall just hums in agreement, but doesn’t move for a moment longer. Louis rolls his eyes, and pushes Niall hard enough that he rolls down and lands on the ground only seconds later.

“Ouch!” Niall complains, though, Louis knows he isn’t actually hurt.

 

¤¤¤

 

“Ouch!” the lad murmurs, and instantly without thinking puts his thumb into his mouth. Louis can smell the small drop of blood from across the courtyard.

It’s early in the morning, still dark enough outside that Louis without problems can move around. He hadn’t been expecting to meet anyone at this time of the day, but he probably shouldn’t be surprised to see that some humans actually are awake now. Especially considered the factum that he is no longer in the big city of London, and that that out on the countryside they probably have to get up earlier to get everything they need doing done.

The human is carrying a heap of firewood, and Louis assumes he must have gotten a sliver of the wood in his finger. Louis understands why too. Human flesh is so soft, so easy to break through, and the wood looks hard and raw in the arms of the quite small lad. The human can’t possibly be very old, doesn’t look like it at least.

He’s got a tiny pup running around his feet and seems to be more concentrated on the dog that on what he’s doing too, so yet another reason Louis isn’t _actually_ surprised about the accident.

Louis doesn’t really like dogs. The scent of them is too strong and reminds him of the mutts he’s been fighting with about territory. Those damn bastards are too stubborn to lay down on a fight. Almost as bad as Louis himself.

Right now, though, he can’t even smell the dog. The boy’s scent is too strong.

Louis’s hungry, can’t remember when he last fed. The wonderful smell of the blood is making his mouth watery. Louis just watches the young human for a while. He doesn’t know if it’s because of the hunger, but he’s never smelt anything quite like this before. Everything in him is screaming that the boy is his. The funny thing is, though, that even with the hunger then there’s something keeping him from taking up the hunt and feeding.

“Niall!” a voice yells not far away. Louis can’t see the person anywhere outside, so he assumes the voice must come from inside.

That isn’t the interesting part of what’s happening, as the human - Niall, he reminds himself - flinches in the second he hears the yell. It’s been a while since Louis last surrounded himself by humans other than necessary, but even he can see that Niall doesn’t like or feel safe with whoever is inside that house. For some reason that makes Louis incredible angry.

He can almost hear himself hiss in resentment. Especially when the boy hushes on the puppy who has begun whining, as if the dog is just as afraid of the sound of the voice as the boy is.

Niall almost drops the firewood, as he kneels down on the ground in front of the dog.  “As we practiced, Haz. Shed! Go to the shed!” The dog just whimpers, until Niall stubbornly pushes at it.

“ _Niall!_ ” The voice sounds angrier now than before, and Niall seems to be become more panicky. “Get your lazy arse in here, boy!”

“I’m coming!” Niall shouts back, before quickly turning his attention back to the pup. “Go! Shed! Now, Haz!” The puppy looks at him like it knows too much, so much more than Louis for a fact knows an animal should be aware of, and like even though it’s obvious that the dog is afraid then it still don’t really wanna leave its human alone with what is frightening it.

Louis can admire that, even if it’s a dog there’s talk about.

In the end Niall insists too much, and the puppy finally does as told and moves in the direction of what Louis assumes must be the place Niall wanted it to go. Niall watches it go for just a second before stumbling up again and hurrying towards the house.

He should leave. Louis has no business to do on the small farm, and even he himself doesn’t understand his sudden interest in the life of a human.

Louis watches him disappear, the want to do at least _something_ burning deeply inside him. He can’t, though. Shouldn’t intervene in the humans’ business. Besides, the sun is going to come up soon, and Louis needs to find a place to sleep.

 

¤¤¤ 

 

They should be sleeping. Normally Louis would have been dead asleep a long time ago, but Niall is young, and the energy is still running through his veins, striking like a lightning bolt inside the young vampires body. He’s young and it’s easy for Louis to see that he’s been feeding regularly too. All as an opposite of Louis.

It’s after noon already, and Louis could go for a nap to say it as it is. Niall on the other hand seems to have a hard time lying still. They’re lying spread across the floor in front of the fireplace. The fire is on, not because they get cold, but because Louis enjoys listening to the fire crackle over the dry wood. Maybe he’s a bit fascinated with it too. The idea of how easily the fire could kill him. It’s like a game he plays with himself. How long can he surround himself with things that’s going to kill him, before the craving becomes too much and he let it happen.

Niall’s been smoking since he got here. Weed, if Louis’ nose isn’t betraying him too much. He doesn’t say a word about it, though. Has smoked his fair share too. Drugs and alcohol don’t really have the same effect on them as it does on humans, but sometimes it takes the edge of, makes it easier to cope with the world. Their senses is timed a thousand of what a human has to bear, and it can be hard being in your own skin when everything seems to be screaming at you constantly, when even the softest light can feel like being stabbed in the eyes, when a light brush is like getting punched squire in the face.

It gets easier with time, but even now Louis can have days where he just wants to scream. He feels bad for Niall who probably still have a lot of those days.

“What happened to disliking the big city life?” he mutters, keeping his voice inaudible to spare the younger ones ears for too much noise.

“Never said I disliked being here. Just that there was so much of the world to still explore for me to settle down,” Niall laughs, inhaling yet another load of smoke. “Your old arse should know the feeling of that, Lou. After all then I have yet to meet a vampire who didn’t know the name Louis Tomlinson. Even the young ones who haven’t met you know who you are. You should stop being stubborn and actually tell me some of your stories once.”

“It’s not about being stubborn. Sometimes the past just belongs in the past. Not because they necessarily is good or bad, but because they change nothing about the present. And some stories just aren’t mine to tell. Have you thought about it like that?”

“Or maybe you’re just a boring, stubborn arse, who don’t wanna share your great stories,” Niall pouts.

“Shut up, Neil!” Louis groans in return. “Alright, I’ll tell you a story. What do you wanna know?”

“Tell me my story. Tell me why you didn’t just pass by and forgot everything you saw that night.”

 

¤¤¤

 

Louis comes back to the farm as soon as the dark washes over the sky once again. It’s winter, and Louis doesn’t have to wait long for it to happen. Lucky at that too, because all day he’s close to going crazy just thinking about the human boy.

Whoever was inside that house was _hurting_ the boy, Louis is sure of it. And it’s not like Louis hasn’t seen that happen before. He’s seen maidens, stable boys, basically everyone working beneath someone else, get beaten for even the smallest mistakes, and he hasn’t cared. They were humans, none of his business. Niall isn’t either, but still Louis wants to kill whoever is hurting the boy.

The boy isn’t hard to find. After first getting a scent of the human that morning, it doesn’t take long to hunt him down. Louis finds him in the stable, grooming an old horse. The dog from earlier is lying a couple of feet away from the human. Louis stays in the shadows, makes sure there’s no way Niall is going to see him. Louis can see him, though. And he’s so endeared by what he’s seeing.

Niall is humming what sounds like an old Irish song. It’s happy, and something you’d dance to in a crowd to have fun. And if he isn’t dancing. Moves his feet around to the sound of his own humming, all while he continues to groom the horse. The horse seems to enjoy it too, and Louis can’t hide the smile from showing when he sees how the animal is tapping along as it wants to be a part of what Niall is doing. Even the dog in the corner is wagging its tail to the melody.

The whole time Louis has been watching him, he’s had his back to where Louis is standing. He feels his blood beginning to boil as soon as the boy makes a turn, and he’s able to see his face. Bruises are forming on his cheekbone just beneath his eye, and another on his jaw.

Louis is going to kill the person who did that!

 

¤¤¤ 

 

“You didn’t leave because you saw me dancing?” Niall laughs, eyes cringing up so Louis can no longer see the blue in them. It’s cute, but then again Louis has never had a problem admitting to himself that he finds Niall cute.

“I didn’t leave because you made me _feel_ something. A little human boy reminded me how it was to feel things. It takes surprisingly short time to forget about the part of you that’s human, the part that feels. I couldn’t leave you there knowing someone was hurting you, because you reminded me of being human.”

“Then why did you stay when first the threat was gone? You could still have disappeared afterwards, knowing I was safe.”

Louis doesn’t start telling immediately, and instead takes a moment where he just watches Niall take the last inhale of the weed, just to throw the fag into the fireplace.

“I think I realised I was lonely,” he admits.

 

¤¤¤

 

A terrified scream reaches his ears, though Louis is miles away from the farm by now. He knows the scream isn’t one of sorrow. Maybe he should have cleaned up after himself, to save the boy of having to see his master’s lifeless body drenched in the blood Louis didn’t drink.

His hunger is finally sated, and everything in his body feels ten pounds lighter from the knowledge that the human boy is safe now. No more people will hurt him, and Louis can continue on with his life, knowing that he did something good to weight up some of the bad he’s done through his too long life.

It shouldn’t be this hard continuing running. He’s got nothing here. Still, it feels like he’s leaving everything behind.

_Keep running. Just keep moving. Let the human live his life._

Louis is moving back towards the farm before he can even think it through.

 

¤¤¤

 

Niall has moved closer while Louis was telling, without him even noticing. He first does when he feels the younger lad rest his head on Louis stomach. Louis is quiet and just watches Niall work his hardest to keep still. He doesn’t succeeds till he turns his face to look at Louis. His whole body goes slack in the moment their eyes lock together.

Louis breathes; in and out in a slow rhythm. He doesn’t need to, but it seems to calm Niall even more as the boy begins copying the movement as if on autopilot.

“Are you angry with me for the decisions I made on your behalf?” Louis asks quietly.

They’ve never really discussed it at all. Maybe Niall is right when he says Louis is an old, stubborn arse when it comes to talking about the past. Louis could have let him keep his innocence. He could have let him die back then when the fever took over and threated to take Niall’s life, with the knowledge that he didn’t doom his soul to getting lost. But Louis hadn’t been able to do that, and instead he now has to watch the aftermath of his actions.

He doesn’t regret a single decision he took, but that doesn’t mean Niall wouldn’t have preferred to have the option of never having to become a vampire.

Niall blinks. Once, twice. Never stops breathing in the same rhythm as Louis.

“No.” His voice is surprisingly soft, but not in a way that makes Louis think it’s because he wants to spare his feelings. He sounds so genuine. “No. Despite everything, then I’ve never thought for a second that anything you’ve done hasn’t been what you thought was the best for me. You’ve got a good heart, Lou.”

A good heart. Louis isn’t sure what it requires to say you have a good heart. Something tells him, though, that no, he does not have a good heart. It might be that he saved a young human, whose life was harder than it should have ever been, but what about the thousands he has killed to stay alive? Louis is no saint, has done more damage than most, and at most points through his life, that has been something he’s chosen himself.

He doesn’t argue with Niall about it. Just lets the boy have his way. And maybe, just maybe, he wants Niall to think well of him. Maybe that’s one of the reasons Louis doesn’t normally tell any of the stories he’s saving in his mind. Not all of them are pretty.

“I remember seeing the terror in your eyes, when I found you,” Louis says, changing back to the story. “Remember how many things actually scared you. For some reason, though, you never really was afraid of me.”

 

¤¤¤

 

Humans are weird. For some reason daylight seems to make them happy. They enjoys eating the meat from animals, and are chewing one plant after the other as if it’s a delicacy. They seem to need constant attention and affection, something Louis has a very hard time coping with as he’s spend pretty much the last two hundred years without any contact to people outside of feeding. And they’re just so _touchy_!

The funny thing is, Louis is growing quite fond of the human. It’s a little bit like having a pet. At least that’s what Niall tells him over and over again. _Stop treating me like your pet!_ And yeah maybe Louis pats the boy’s head like he sees Niall do with the dog running around constantly. Maybe he sometimes scratches his belly, though that has nothing to do with the laugh always slipping from Niall when he does so. He feeds the human, plays with him when he’s bored and takes him for walks in the evening when the sun has settled. It’s not exactly like it’s his intention to treat him like a pet, but Louis isn’t quite sure what else to do with him.

Louis won’t claim to be an expert either, but sometimes, most times honestly, it doesn’t really seem like Niall _actually_ minds the treatment even with the constant complaining. That’s another thing humans seem to love doing. That and talk Louis’ freaking ears off. No, Niall doesn’t seem to mind it when he cuddles up into Louis’ side in the morning when Louis is close to falling asleep, but still can’t help but nuzzle the boy’s hair. He doesn’t seem to mind when he reminds Louis of the promised night walk if Louis forgets or is too slow to get going.

So Louis takes over the farm, and very slowly Niall’s trust and maybe just a tiny bit of his heart. And Niall takes over a part of his. Times go by and he realises that having someone close all the time isn’t quite as bad as he remembers.

That’s it until a terrible fever washes over the farm. The few workers Louis found there outside of Niall get sick first. Louis tries his best to keep Niall away from the sickness, but even he can do nothing against it. It doesn’t take long before Louis knows the people are going to die from the fever, and he puts them to rest before they have to suffer anymore.

He can’t do that with Niall, though. Can’t get himself to even think the thought of letting the boy go.

When there’s no hope left, Louis does something he vowed a long time ago he’d never do. He lets his teeth sink into the soft skin of a human, and let the poison in them run into their veins. He lets it stay there. Watches for days as Niall screams in pain when the poison kills everything in his body making him a human.

Louis doesn’t regret it for a second.

 

¤¤¤

 

“I remember that. The fever. And the pain afterwards. It felt like I was going to die,” Niall admits. Louis knows that. It’s one of the few things from your time as a human you’re never going to forget. It’s the only thing Louis himself has left from back then.

Memories become so clear when it’s seen through your new eyes, but everything else become so muddy. Louis has only a faint idea left of who he was as a person before he was bitten.

“In a way you did. Your heart isn’t beating any longer, is it? You don’t need the air running through your lungs any more. I killed you when I bit you.” It’s true too. A vampire isn’t quite what you could call being alive. It does something to the mind too. Niall isn’t the young innocent soul he was when Louis first met him. He’s stronger, more dangerous, and his soul is a little more rotten in the edges. He’s one of the few that has stayed somewhat the person he was before, though, and no matter what then Louis is always going to love him.

That why he still hasn’t been able to stay and watch the morning come. His love for Niall is too strong for him to let go. Every little cell in his body screams at him that Niall is his, and that he can’t leave his Niall behind.

“The rest of the story you know,” Louis says, turning his eyes away and instead watches the fire sway to the sound of its own crackling. He doesn’t feel like telling anymore. The story doesn’t get pretty after that. Hunger, blood and death for years and years going on. New vampires requires so much work, something Louis hadn’t quite been ready for when he turned Niall. Maybe he should have been, as he probably was ten time as bad when he was a new born himself, but he hadn’t. And Louis regrets that. Regrets not being ready, and regret being the reason that Niall’s soul was doomed so early. He’s settled now, though, more or less at least, and Louis is proud of the person Niall has become.

“I do,” Niall agrees, voice quiet.

None of them says anything for ages. Niall keeps eyes turned towards Louis, and eventually Louis catches his eyes once again.

“You fell in love with me, didn’t you? That’s why you couldn’t just let me die.”

The question is so blatant, though Louis still doesn’t really see it coming. He doesn’t hesitate answering, and says the first thing coming to mind. “I did, yes. I fell in love with the innocent blue eyes, the hair that never seemed to want to settle down, the small body that suddenly wasn’t so small anymore. Not only that, I fell in love with the way you looked at me like I was your whole world. I fell in love with the way you smiled at me, and how you never questioned anything I said. I came to love how seemingly nothing could make you laugh that special laugh of yours. And I love how even with everything that happened to you, you never gave up on life.”

“And now?” He seems so nervous, and Louis can almost feel the tension in the air. And now? For just a moment Louis doesn’t answer, needs to think it all through.

“And now, you’re the reason I’m still here. I never stopped loving you, how could I possibly? None of those things ever changed, and neither did how you made me feel.”

Niall doesn’t say anything in return. Instead he lifts his hand, and hold it for Louis to take. He does so, incredibly gently. He’s not sure he’ll ever be able to let go of it again.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed! Kudos and comments always appreciated! You can also find me on tumblr at nialliesmiley, do come say hi :)


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